The Dragon Who Hated Us
by Pannic
Summary: A Rider's Memior. Based loosely off of the Inheritence Cycle of books, in a vaguely similar world. Justin recounts his relationship with the dragon Pernas.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I remember when I first heard that I was to join the Riders. I'd come home from an errand when I saw two magnificent dragons outside my house, with their Riders inside. One of them was a tall, handsome elf with silvery-blonde hair, and the other was a human, somewhat more scruffy, with a goatee.

I've never been particularly smart. Just good at the things I do, though I long considered I just did the things I was good at. But these Riders there thought differently.

"We understand that you're something of a prodigy, young Justin." The elf said. "We believe you have the mark of a Rider. Our dragons can see it."

"Indeed." Said his dragon (a female) through the window. "We can see it on him. He is open to bond."

"Bond?" I asked. "You mean, with a dragon?"

"Yes." The man said. "If you want to."

Well, obviously I accepted. We have all heard the great things about the Riders, and many people owe their lives to the actions of the Order.

"Wonderful." The man said. "You'll want to make your way to Belaria. In three weeks, there will be a ship there to take you to the Academy."

You see, Belaria is the coastal city. The Academy is on a large island of the coast. That's the main headquarters of the Order of Dragon Riders. They have a distinct military advantage there. You can only get there by a ship or by flying, and if you were to attack by ship, they could easily fly in with their dragons and burn the boats. And obviously, very few people outside of the Riders can fly.

I'd never really met a dragon. Yes, I'd seen Riders before, but I'd never really gotten to meet the dragons themselves. That's what I was really looking forward to, though I hadn't really absorbed the fact that one of the creatures would be something of a life partner.

Everything about my life changed then. I remember my first day in Belaria. I'd never been to a really big city before. The whole place was bustling with activity. As a port city, it was a center of trade and commerce, and the streets were packed with people. There were even some Riders there, though the dragons themselves stayed out of the city, understandably.

Except for one. I saw one dragon near a butcher's shop, looking hungrily at an ox that was waiting outside in a pen. The dragon had no apparent Rider in sight. He was a striking creature. He was about one-and-a-half times the size of the poor beast he was grinning hungrily at, and covered in glittering blue scales, with piercing blue eyes. I even noticed that he had a sapphire in his forehead. I wondered how that got there, though my thoughts were cut short when he turned his head and saw me. The ox seemed thankful.

"Oh." The dragon said. "Hello. Never seen a dragon before?" he asked.

"No... I mean, yes, I have seen a dragon." I said. The dragon turned to face me and sat down lazily. There was a sort of grin on his face that made me uncomfortable at first. "I'm going off to the Academy..." my voice trailed off when I saw him make a sort of scoffing noise, blowing a bit of smoke.

"Ahh. Joining the glorious Riders?" he asked, in a tone that was almost condescending. "I think you'll like that."

"I take it you don't have a Rider..." I started, though I was starting to feel very foolish.

"Nope." The dragon said cheerfully, standing over and walking by me. "Don't care to have one. I live on that island near the Academy... Not my thing." he said, admiring his silvery-white claws. "Though the Elders want me to get one. Though they simultaneously dread that happening." he chuckled. A bell rang in the distance. "Oh, that'll be the ship." he said, walking off. He looked behind at me. "Aren't you getting on?"

"Oh! Yes..." I said sheepishly, following him. "So... you aren't flying there?"

"Nah." he said. "I like boats. They're fun little devices. Also it's fun to see the look on the other peoples' faces."

This was completely unexpected. I'd always expected dragons to be much more formal. Then again, this seemed to be a wild dragon... or something vaguely similar to a wild dragon. He couldn't really compare.

The boat was somewhat small, being that it only had a small number of other students on it. They were all surprised when the dragon boarded with them. They didn't quite know what to think about the matter. They were all shy and nervous in his presence, which made for a somewhat quiet trip. A couple of people looked at the dragon with looks of disdain, I remember.

The boat set off, and we were all quiet. We didn't know what to say. I suppose that with the presence of the dragon, and the knowledge of where we were going, we were all feeling very formal. The fact that we were with a very _in_formal dragon made things quite awkward. We saw the island looming in the distance, with the shining Academy there. It was a large castle complex... it was beautiful to behold, a shining crystalline palace, it looked like.

At the end of the short voyage, we were greeted by one of the Elders with his bright red Dragon. I recognized him as the elf that came to recruit me. He was very tall, must've been 6 foot 5. Had silvery-white hair, and his dragon was rather striking as well. A bit bigger than the blue dragon on the boat with us, and more intimidating.

"Good day, new students." he said to us. "I am Caeras, and I will be one of your teachers during your training."

"And I am Kiryst." the dragon said, bowing her head. "You will be free to find your rooms to stay at. And tomorrow, you will meet the dragons to find your partner." she threw an icy glare at the dragon with us, through those vivid green eyes. "And I expect you to be there, Pernas. No hiding this time."

Pernas sauntered up to her, smiling a serpentine smile. "Oh, you know I'd do anything for you, darling." he said in a teasing tone. Kiryst growled at him. Caeras folded his arms.

"Pernas." Caeras said in a patient, though stern tone of voice.

"Oh, why do I have to?" Pernas asked. "I'm never having one of these guys on my back."

"You don't have to, no." Caeras said. "But we'd appreciate if you did."

"Fine, fine..." Pernas grumbled, trudging off.

"You'll have to excuse Pernas here." Caeras said, turning to the other students. "He's a bit unruly. Perhaps one of you will be his Rider-"

"Doubt it." Pernas called back, before taking off into the sky and flying away to another part of the island.

I was surprised with how frugal my room was, and a bit relieved. It was comfortable, but not particularly grand, like the rest of the Academy was. It had all the necessities and was neat and all. I just set all my stuff on the floor (not that I had much baggage) and lay there on the bed.

I thought about what it would be like to bond with a dragon. Would he (or she? I wasn't sure) like me? Would I like it? Was I up to joining this grand Order? I stayed up for awhile, pondering. I didn't really know many dragons. There were the ones that the Riders were on, but they were never able to socialize much, and I was often nervous around them. The only one I ever got to talk to was Pernas, today. And he was completely different from what I'd come to expect. Kiryst more fit what I had been expecting. Solemn, serious, grave in most aspects. But Pernas was different; he has loud, boisterous, and generally cheerful, from what I had seen. Guess that shows what I know, I thought.

Before I knew it, I heard talking.

"So, Pernas, if one of those people were to ride you, who would it be?"

I looked over. Somehow, I was sitting on a mountain, and there was Pernas, surrounded by a few other dragons, apparently female. I really had no idea how this had happened.

"Oh, don't ask me that." Pernas said lazily. "It's always either a human with rocks in his head, or an elf with the personality of a rock. That or it's a half-and-half, but they almost always have family problems, what with a parent being dead or something."

"But if you had to choose?" a small female cooed.

"Well..." Pernas said, thinking. "I think I'd rather go with the human."

"Human?"

"Yes. They're more amusing and generally more likeable and less boring. And if they get pretentious, it's easy to deflate its ego. Elves, not so much. They have infinite egos. And he has to be very stupid."

"But humans are generally very stupid."

"Yes, but this one would know that he's stupid. Thus, a lack of pretension on his part."

My thoughts were, for a very informal dragon, he liked to use big words like 'pretension' on a regular basis.

"And also, the human would have to have some interest in artistic things. I've always liked human art and music. That might be tricky... has to be artistically inclined, but an idiot. Not like it matters. I intend to stay free as a bird, and nothing is ever going to bring me down."

"How did this get in my room?" I asked at length, after racking my brain as to what exactly was going on.

"Huh?" Pernas asked, looking at me at last. The female dragons seemed to just exit. "What are _you_ doing on _my_ mountain? And where'd that bed come from?"

I looked down. It seemed the bed was right there on the cliff. We were silent for a minute.

"Umm..." I said. "Goodnight?" I asked, turning over and going to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Well, when I woke up in the morning, all was normal. I figured that I'd been dreaming the other night. I must've just dozed off while thinking... It's funny that way. When we have dreams, most of the time we aren't aware that they're dreams. Then we realize the next morning how silly it was...

I stretched, and blinked, holding up my hand to shield my eyes from the sun coming in through the window...

Then I realized that I'd overslept. Well, I didn't know when we were supposed to get up, but I had thought that it might be early.

I rapidly threw on some clothes and ran out. Largely due to the fact that I had crammed both my leg into a single one of my pant legs, I fell down quickly after exiting my room, crashing into another one of the students.

"Uh! Oh, that's okay." he said, after we both hit the ground. I looked up at him, perplexed at his response. My first thought was that he might be one of those 'half-and-half' people that Pernas had mentioned in the dream. He certainly did seem like that. He was tall like the elves, with silvery-blonde hair, and subtle points at his ears. Though his eyes were hazel. Not like the more glassy colors of some of the other elves. "Oh... dear..." he said, getting up, burying his face in his hand.

"What?" I asked, perplexed, righting my legs in my pants while his eyes were obscured.

"I said 'that's okay' before you said 'sorry...'" He said. "I'm sorry..."

"Huh?" I asked, still not sure what he was getting on about. Though it was a bit odd... I was just opening my mouth to say 'sorry' when he...

"I'm a telepath." he said, sighing. "I try not to use it so much."

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's rude. Mother always said not to invade on peoples' privacy. I try not to look at people too closely... but sometimes I can't help but hear what people are going to say before they even open their mouths..."

"Well..." I said, shrugging. "Seems like an honest mistake... At least you're not looking at my-"

"Don't finish that sentence, please." The Halfer said awkwardly. The subject was dropped. Which is odd, because I wasn't even sure what I was about to say. "Here," he said, holding out a hand, which I took, and he helped me get up. "My name's Lawrence." he said.

"Justin." I said. "Uhh... we're not late or anything, are we?"

"No. I don't think so. Then again, because they don't think so..." he laughed a bit at his joke. "Don't worry. We're just supposed to look around the academy and grounds today. Meet the dragons and the like. We'll begin training when we get our dragons. Well, I'm off. I'll see you in classes." he said, walking off, while I just stood there.

I just stood there, looking around for some time, not knowing where I wanted to go. The place felt... surreal. I'd been from a very modest back-ground, and this place... it wasn't modest. It was pretentious and cold. Not warm and humble like the things I was used to. Sure, it toned down the pretentiousness in my room, but out here...

I don't think it was the pretentiousness that bothered me. No. It was just too cold. Pretentious and warm I could stand. But pretentious and cold... No. I couldn't. I had to get outside.

I tried not to face the Academy when I got out and the sun hit me. I felt better. I didn't like the Academy so much at this point, but the land around it was pleasant. Mainly consisted of grasslands and forest. It was sunny outside, and I felt comfortable.

I saw a large white dragon sleeping out in the open. I sat down and looked at it. After having seen a couple of dragons, I was much less nervous about them. And at least there wasn't much to be nervous about, as this one was asleep and a fair distance away.

After a length of time, the dragon woke up, giving a wide, toothy yawn. As if right on cue, Pernas appeared and started walking up to the other dragon, slowly. I quickly gathered that the white dragon was a female.

"Hey there." he said, with that Don Juan-ish glint in his eye. "Have a nice rest?"

Well, the female didn't say anything. But she hissed at him rather nastily. Pernas flinched backwards. "Woke up on the wrong side of the grass, eh?" he asked, trying to keep what sense of dignity he had. The female growled and walked off. Pernas snorted, two puffs of smoke coming out of his nostrils. Then he saw me out of the corner of one of those blue eyes, and turned to look at me.

He was silent. He then turned to face me, and began walking towards me, slowly. I felt... a strange sort of connection. I'd felt something like it in the dream. Then I knew. I was his Rider. How did I react... I don't remember. I wasn't really thrilled. I was a bit numb, likely due to Pernas. He stood there, in front of me, making himself tall, and looked down at me. Then he opened his mouth, and said in that slow, choppy way you talk to an idiot.

"Go. To. Hell."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

There are alot of dragons in the world. I just happened to get stuck with the sex maniac.

Suffice to say, my career wasn't looking like it was off to a good start. I'd learned that Pernas was not exactly in the highest esteem with the Elders, or most of the other Riders. Some of them admired him as a 'bad-ass.' However, what the younger, more impressionable riders thought of my dragon was little consolation to the hostility that I felt from the more serious members of our Order. But it wasn't my fault.

I tried to get on time to my first class, but Pernas happily pointed me in the wrong direction. Granted, perhaps it was my fault for suspecting nothing when his direction led me away from the Academy...

I got in some hot water with the teachers for that. Though Pernas received much more scorn. Late one night he crawled into my room and sat on the floor (thankfully the rooms were big. I just wish they didn't have such a draft). I asked him, "Why were you so late?"

"I had to stay after" Pernas grumbled. "They did a most abominable thing."

"What did they do?" I asked.

"They managed to take flying and make it stop being fun," he said, lying down in the middle of the floor. "Now shut up."

He still didn't like me.

He did a few things to stop me from getting to my classes. He'd lead me in wrong directions, trap me in holes, tie my shoes together... to this day I have no idea how he managed to do that last one... But after awhile, I tried to just avoid him and depend on other, more reliable people to point me in the right direction. Lawrence was always helpful. His dragon hadn't started taking classes yet. She was just a baby. A little green dragon that he named Cassandra, after his mother.

Though there were mornings that I couldn't avoid Pernas and his dastardly deeds. He was always awake earlier that I was, and he'd start trouble first thing in the morning. Say, for example, that I needed my arm guards for sparring? They'd somehow disappear. I swear, he would just wake up and sit, staring at me. I swear, sometimes I thought he was going to set fire to the bed, or eat me, or something. It's not like my fears were unfounded – he was blowing smoke at me.

I was feeling a mixture of anxiety, frustration, and a little depression. Here I was, part of an important organization, the Dragon Riders – and my dragon hated me.

"It isn't just you." Lawrence said. "He hates all of us."

"All of us?" I asked.

"All the Riders, and all the dragons." Lawrence said, sighing. "He was... upset that you pulled him into this."

"Hey, don't eavesdrop on my thoughts, Halfer!" Pernas growled from the rooftops, before slinking out of sight.

"So... all of us?" I asked.

"Yes." Lawrence said. He looked up where Pernas had been. "It isn't like it's a thought you've been keeping secret." he called. He looked back at me. "With the way it radiates from him, it's like he's parading around the fact. Not that he doesn't anyway." he said, shrugging.

"It's just... jarring." I said. "Not to mention bothersome. He keeps trying to keep me from getting to class."

"He'll get bored of it eventually. He's in this to stay, and he'll have to come to grips with that. And I wouldn't worry about him hating you. There's never been a Rider and a dragon that truly hated each other. It'll pass. He's just cranky that he's been dragged into this. Many dragons simply don't want to have Riders. Alot of the wild dragons are like that. If you went up to a wild dragon and asked him or her to be your dragon, they would take great offense."

That was more or less the idea that my teachers had.

"What you have to understand is that we've all known Pernas for quite some time," my sparring teacher, Mr. Lawson, said. He'd been more sympathetic to my plights than some of the other teachers. "And he has been, from day one, insolent, boorish, and crude. He's always treated us with a sort of... snide contempt. But everything about our relationship with him is common knowledge. Tell me about how you get along with him."

"I don't, for the most part." I said. "We avoid each other, except when he tries to give me grief."

"He's done practical jokes on all of us at some point. He's something of a mascot to the more... unruly Riders. Though I don't think he likes them much more than the rest of us."

"Why does he hate the Riders?" I asked. "Does he hate humans in general, or..."

"Oh, no. He's not a racist like that. He likes humans. Otherwise he'd be off in the mountains with a colony of other dragons. If anything, he gets along better with humans than with dragons. He's been said to admire things that they do."

"He likes boats..." I said, remembering our first meeting.

"It's very rude to talk about people behind their back." that almost sing-song voice came from the roof again, as Pernas looked down on us. "Ah, there's my little Justin, eh?" he asked, noticing me.

"Apparently, you two haven't been getting along?" Lawson asked.

"Oh? Oh, I'm so sorry..." Pernas said, spreading his wings and gliding down near us. "I'm sorry, Justin. Please, don't take it personally. I'd be pissed at anyone who tried to get on my back."

"But I haven't tried to get on your back..." I started.

"You haven't seen me pissed."

There was a silence for a few seconds before Lawson chimed in.

"You've been preventing young Justin here from getting to his classes on time."

"Or at all." I said.

"I'm simply preparing young Justin here for his higher education," Pernas said with that serpentine smirk. "Besides, classes are so boring. Think of it as a favor."

"I guess..." I said.

"Not very sharp, are ya?" Pernas asked, peering at me through one eye.

"Now, Pernas, that's enough." Lawson said. "Stop tormenting your Rider."

"I am not tormenting him." Pernas asked, turning to look at him. "Am I?" he asked, looking back at me. I shrugged.

"Very well..." Lawson muttered. "Justin, I'll be seeing you during class." he glared at Pernas. "On time and with all his equipment." he said, before walking away. Pernas snickered.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A partial list of various torments is as follows

Stealing my breakfast

Stealing my lunch

Stealing my dinner

Loudly farting next to me

Hitting on any and all female dragons bonded to teachers

Dumping me into the lake

Dropping me into class late

Flying in and lifting me out of class early and then dumping me into the lake

Burning my clothes

Eating my clothes

You get the idea.

But, eventually, he got bored of tormenting me and started to mellow out. He didn't act in such a snarky manner towards me any more, though he was still disdainful of the rest of the Riders, of course.

He was generally cordial towards me, or at least not openly hostile. I remember the first time we were sitting at the lake and he didn't throw me in. He seemed more interested in taking a nap, while I was fishing.

I have no idea why I was fishing. I don't particularly enjoy it. But I guess at the time I just glad to have quiet time without things being on fire. Something of a breather, I guess.

Of course, there were no fish in the lake. It's funny how we sometimes do completely irrational things and only realize the absurdity in hindsight. Pernas actually seemed quiet right now, if only because he was asleep. Though I was still slightly nervous – any second now he could spring up and push me into the lake.

I closed my eyes for a minute, and then I smelled burning wood. I opened my eyes.

My fishing pole was on fire. I jumped up and tossed it into the lake. I turned and saw Pernas snickering behind me.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked.

"Everything's better on fire." he said, with that grin plastered on his face.

"I beg to differ..." I muttered, turning back to look where the cinders of the pole were floating in the lake.

"That's because you hate fun." he said.

"No, I do not hate fun, just-"

"My kind of fun?" he asked. "What, you prefer the... intellectually stimulating fun that comes with complete boredom? I don't get it, quite frankly."

"Because you're young?" I ventured a guess. Pernas found it highly amusing.

"What's that got to do with anything?" he asked, laughing. "Besides, you're not particularly ancient, yourself."

Well, I didn't have much to say to that. I just sat there like an idiot while he laughed.

"I just like some innocent amusement in my life." Pernas said, sitting down again. "That's all that I want."

"Free spirit and all?" I asked. "You still a wild dragon at heart?"

"Well..." Pernas said, weighing my assertion. "Maybe you could say that..." He grinned lightly. I could still tell he was being condescending. Even if I didn't know what 'condescending' meant.

Then he pushed me into the lake.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hey, believe me, that was an improvement over the general given day.

Things mainly carried on in a sort of passive-aggressive manner. It seems my greatest respites were the classes themselves, when I didn't have to be near him. Which is all the more ironic considering how I embarrassed myself.

"You aim too much for the legs." Lawson said one day towards the end of sparring class. "The legs might seem an easy target, but aiming for them leaves your whole upper body wide open."

"I don't see the problem," I said. "If I can hit them at all, well..."

"We're trying to improve how you hit them." The instructor said, smiling patiently. "I see the problem. Your aim is to simply win as quickly as possible – and that is a good way of tackling a problem. If you find yourself in combat, you want to get it finished quickly, but you also have to be careful. And you can't rely on the same tactics every single time."

"I'll remember that." I said.

"You're improving" Lawson said, walking off to tend to some other student who had gotten very angry with his sparring partner and had proceeded to try bashing his head in with a stick. Thankfully, that didn't work out very well. I saw Lawrence's little green dragon, Cassandra, staring at me.

"What d'you want?" I asked. Cassandra just stared at me a little while, and then left, making a little squeaking noise. Baby dragons don't really like to make conversation often, except with their parents or their Riders, if they happen to get Riders that soon. Cassandra was rather shy, yet she seemed rather snooty with they way she walked around, as though she was contemplating whether or not she should indulge the ground in enjoying her step.

She was, at the moment, the only dragon on the island that was affiliated with the Riders. The others had gone off to visit a colony of wild dragons on a nearby continent, far away from any human or elven settlements. Very few of the dragons here were specifically 'wild.' They had been born in the world of humans and elves, accustomed to us. Very rarely would a wild dragon take on a Rider, for sheer pride.

I had the feeling Pernas would be right at home out there. Maybe he'd never come back... and thus have me kicked out of the Order... well, I hoped I wouldn't be kicked out. Though that'd be highly unusual for a dragon to leave his Rider. Then again, Pernas was a highly unusual dragon.

Well, more 'crass' than 'unusual.'

With class over, I went back to the nearby cliff, looking out over the ocean. I could see the city from here. Just liked the time to myself. Being alone, to ponder things, or just enjoy the serenity.

I tried to forget that I had things to work on – I hadn't touched my violin since I arrived, even if I was supposed to practice every day, I had to review history and literature –

I didn't quite get why they wanted us to learn about history and literature – what on earth does that have to do with being a Rider?

"Education is important." Lawrence said as he was passing by.

I didn't really like it when he did that, even when it did answer the question. I care for my privacy.

And for a few days, Pernas was off on the visit of the colony. I improved in my courses due to this, for one being able to get to class on time. Also, I didn't have any distractions to get in the way. And my homework didn't keep disappearing. Well, wasn't disappearing as much. Come to think of it, at times I was grateful to Pernas for burning that stuff, though I didn't let him know. Maybe he would have been happy to do it anyways, I don't know.

But the important thing is that right now, he was gone.

But the thing that became very apparent after a week had passed was that things were very boring. Classes were immensely dull for me. Then again, that's probably just because I'm naturally stupid. At least having my day ruined makes it memorable.

He did return, eventually, with the other dragons, after another week. It's hard to really remember the details of what happened during his absence, given the complete boredom, but I remember when he came back.

I was fishing at the time. With no bait, as I didn't want my daydreams to be interfered with by a tug on the line. I enjoy sitting out there... I just don't like fish.

Anyway, as I was saying, Pernas returned. I saw all the dragons flying back to the Academy, but I noticed something odd... One of the dragons seemed to be having trouble flying, and was being supported by two others. Then I squinted my eyes to try to see who it was, and to my shock, it was Pernas.

I dropped my fishing pole (or, more accurately, stick), and ran to the Academy as they were landing. Turns out I wasn't the only one who noticed something was wrong. All of the teachers and a large amount of the students were there.

Pernas was badly hurt. He was bleeding all over from several gashes in his skin, and his wing seemed torn. His eye seemed to be shut, due to a large cut over it, and he was limping badly.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Just get away!" Pernas snapped, forcing his way through the crowd, limping. "What, is it that everyone in the world who annoys me is now drawn to me or something?"

He limped his way away from everyone, though they still kept a close eye on him. Everyone was wondering what had happened. Everyone except for the dragons, of course. No doubt they'd explain everything to their respective Riders. Not that it was very comforting for me at the moment, as my dragon didn't seem to want to talk. That was the impression he gave me as he ignored me, limping over to our room. "Go away, I want to take a nap." he said gruffly, shutting the door with his tail.

I put my hand on the doorknob. Then I took my hand away.

He had locked it.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Being a dragon (and having good care taken at the Academy), Pernas' injuries did not last long, though he was fairly cranky for a little while afterwards. He kept explanations simple with me, as if he'd almost forgotten.

"Intolerant of wisecracks." Pernas said. "Take themselves so seriously you'd think that comedy was a sin."

"We all thought you'd fit right in with the wild dragons..." I said.

"Justin, there are alot of things that annoy me. Towards the top of the list are arrogance and pretension. One of the reasons I'm able to stand you." Pernas said. "The wild dragons? They're even more stuck-up than the Riders."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Exactly what I said. You know any story that involves a backwards society that stays with archaic customs?" Pernas asked. "It's pretty much just like that. They have all these pretenses. Think they're better than us dragons with the Riders, because 'we don't degrade our dignity, blah blah blah.'"

"Aren't you pretty much the same way?" I asked.

Silence. Pernas sighed, trying to think of an answer. "No." he said. "I didn't stay out because of pride. Some dragons refuse to consider the idea at all. You saw that dream, didn't you? I considered the idea. There are just things about the Riders – the organization, that I don't like." he paused and looked at me. "You don't talk much, do you?"

"Keeps me from getting beat up."

Our primary education was coming to an end. Soon we would be going out and become fully-initiated Riders, ready to take up small positions.

Lawrence was in a tight spot with Cassandra. She was still very young, not able to do many of the things that the more fully-grown dragons are capable of doing, a main issue being the whole "Riding" aspect. But that would come eventually. In any case, it seemed that whatever Lawrence did would be something that didn't involve direct action – probably one of the more bureaucratic positions.

Pernas hated me being on his back. Of all his complaints about the arrogance of wild dragons, I couldn't help that he was somehow guilty of the same thing. Yet he couldn't be like them if they'd beaten him up like that. I rode him no more than was absolutely necessary for classes.

Works for me. I'm terrified of heights. "I love it when things are so wonderfully convenient." Pernas commented.

Whatever we were best at determined our overall placement in the order. People who were charismatic or were good talkers were placed in positions as diplomats, negotiators, mediators, etc. There were a variety of those. Some of them had overwhelming, forceful personalities that gave them a sort of aura of authority (though that may have had more to do with the dragon). They were often assisted by those who had done better at academics and studies, to better help. Those were the two kinds of people who were good at arguing: the people who know what they're talking about and the people who know how to talk.

Me? I'm not particularly knowledgeable and I have the charisma of a rock. To my credit, at least I'm not delusional.

As far as academics went, I was competent. I could pass, but I wasn't a star student or anything. It was highly frustrating – I'd been used to just doing things I was good at: athletic things, hands-on activities, etc., and here I was forced to do things I wasn't good at. But it all ended eventually, and I did well enough to pass. I was mainly more skilled in athletic activities, so my first job was as a guard. I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't done as well in the Academy as I thought I would.

"They said I was a prodigy..." I muttered.

"Only compared to your peers at the time, dear." Pernas said.

Well, I suppose that was as good an answer as any. Pernas, however, was a little upset about where we were assigned to.

"An embassy... in a dragon colony. No. No no no no no. You have got to be joking. No."

Pernas didn't want to do it.

We were assigned a position in an embassy in a dragon colony. Not the same colony that Pernas had gotten beat up in (those dragons wouldn't tolerate an embassy, which begs the question of why they allowed visits at all. Maybe they just wanted someone they could look down upon). This colony had better relations with the Riders, and was, in fact, one of the main sources of dragons for the organizations.

It would be a few weeks before we departed, though. In the meantime, we were allowed to leave the Academy for the first time in months. The obvious first choice of most people was to go back and visit their families. I had some doubts about this – Pernas was extremely rude, and I could only dread what havoc he would play with my family.

It was a thought that tormented me as we got on the boat to go back to the city. And it ate away more as we walked the long walk from the city to the town where I lived in (you can easily guess that he didn't let me ride on his back, unless you haven't been paying attention).

Most annoying of all, during that long walk, he would not shut up.

"So you have alot of food at your place, right?"

"You're not a farmer, are you? That'd be completely lame."

"How many siblings do you have?"

"Why don't you talk very much?"

"How big of a city is it?"

"How many floors does your house have?"

"You know, it's not really a bad thing you don't talk very much. Looking stupid with talking is worse than looking stupid with not talking."

"They ever see a real live dragon where you're from?"

"You ever wonder how many potential Riders will never have the chance, because their dragon is one of those stuck-up wild types?"

"I wonder if I should have my scales polished."

It just went on and on like this.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When we arrived at my home and my mother opened the door, he bowed his head politely and said "Good afternoon, Madame."

My mother looked at me and said, "Justin, you look like you've seen a ghost."

I didn't know if he was messing with me or was possessed or what, but as it turns out, he was very polite to my family. In a way, it annoyed me. At least when he was a jerk all the time, I got a sense of consistency. I just like things to be neat and consistent, it makes things easier to think about. I mean, if something is inconsistent, how do you describe it?

So, those first three words he said to my mother broke my mind a little. When I was alone with Pernas I looked at him, and he said "she doesn't annoy me."

After a period of silence, he asked, "Say, where's your father?"

"No idea." I said. "Just some rich cad who just walked in and then walked out."

"For someone that stupid, how do you know words like 'cad?'"

"Hanging around with people who are smart. You pick up a few things. Say..." I started. "What about your parents?"

"Don't have any." Pernas said, shrugging it off. "Tragically, I am a poor orphan boy." he added with a mock-sob.

"How does a dragon become an orphan?" I asked.

"Not entirely sure, now that you mention it..." Pernas said.

"Sometimes I think you're as dumb as I am." I said. "That, or there's something you're not telling me."

"Yeah..." Pernas admitted. "That's one thing, I guess."

"Dragons and their mysterious pasts'" I mumbled. "I'd never guess."

"Nope."

"Wait, if you're keeping secrets from me..." I wondered. "Why?"

"Huh?" Pernas grunted, his mind having apparently wandered elsewhere.

"I'm your Rider. We shouldn't keep secrets from each other."

"Guess not." Pernas said. "Still..."

"What?" I asked, indignantly. "What do you have to keep from me? I haven't kept anything from you."

"You don't have anything to keep." Pernas said. "I'll tell you, just... just not now." he said, lowering his head, as though to take a nap. "It's complicated and I don't know how to explain."

"Try me."

"No. Now go away."

And as such, I decided to take a walk, alone, through my little hometown. People didn't recognize me. I was always forgettable. But it was nice to just be home again, after being away at that academy for several months. Nothing seemed to have changed, save for one of those traveling salesmen giving a pitch in the middle of town.

In a sense, I kind of feel bad for salesmen. Nobody likes them. This one, however, bears mentioning. He was selling the first commercial record player.

"With this device, you can play music – you need nothing but these discs" he said, holding up one of the records.

"What kind of magic does it use?" asked one of the people who bothered to listen.

"No magic." said the salesman. "Just good old human ingenuity."

"What does it play?" asked another person.

"Anything that can be recorded." Said the salesman. "Right now, we're selling a recording of the famous baritone Ralph Williams, singing the Songs of Travel."

The salesman placed the record onto the player, and the voice of the singer (who, although supposedly famous, was unknown to me) began to sound.

"_Give to me the life I love, let the lave go by me._

_Give the jolly heaven above, and the byway nigh me._

_Bed in the bush with stars to see_

_Bread I dip in the river_

_That's the life for a man like me._

_That's the life forever."_

"I want one." Pernas said, appearing.

"Huh?" I asked.

"I want one. I like the Songs of Travel, and I like Ralph Williams. I wan to buy it." Pernas said.

So we bought it. And that's how the Dragon Riders kick-started the record industry.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After having that trip back home, it was time to go back to the Riders, for my first real job: I was going to serve as a representative at a Riders embassy in a dragon colony. It's part of the way they recruit dragons. If a colony will allow the Riders to set up an embassy, any dragons who are interested in joining the organization can look into it.

This embassy was new for the time, and I was to be the first human to be appointed to it, whereas the other Riders there were elves. Elves seemed to dominate the newer embassies while the dragons got used to them. So, I was off to meet wild dragons, without any human company. That made me uncomfortable. I mean, I'm not racist or anything, but I just think that people generally prefer to be with people who are like them – that is, the same species. I know that's the case with me.

In any case, we took the boat – they didn't think Pernas could carry me across the ocean that far. In any case, if he could, he wouldn't. Besides, he liked boats. Me, I'm not that fond. After about a half-hour, you've seen everything there is to see on the thing, and then you're stuck. It's like an island, except there are no palm trees or coconuts.

As can be expected, nothing much happened on the boat, though I was afraid that Pernas would burn the thing down as some kind of twisted practical joke. No, I didn't think him above that.

Our arrival at the colony was a memorable experience. I hadn't paid much attention during dragon biology class, so I didn't know how dragons lived out in the wild. My first thought when we saw the shore was "how on earth are we supposed to dock?" There was no dock it seemed. Only a small patch of sand along the shore, in front of steep cliffs.

Like I said, I'm terrified of heights. Part of the reason that I don't ride on Pernas often. The other part is that he refuses. Works for both of us that way. However, I had no idea how on earth we were supposed to dock. Turns out, we weren't. We were supposed to fly up there.

Joy of joys for both of us. Pernas was muttering something about just throwing me up there, or flying up and letting me drop into the water. I wasn't amused. I could've also sworn he said something about carrying me in his hind claws and then taking a dump on me, but I was never certain. Unpleasant prospect, in any case.

If he was planning anything, he didn't do it, as we both got up there without any shenanigans. This didn't relieve my anxiety about whatever prank was coming. And the stress is caused, considering that it didn't seem to come.

But enough about that. The embassy was simple (elves aren't known for their architectural industriousness, assuming that word exists). People. Going about jobs. Some at desks. Some talking to dragons. Some doing both at the same time.

So, I met up with the person in charge of handling newcomers. An elf by the name of Loryn. And she was very pretty. She had black hair and brown eyes, which somewhat surprised me, but then again I'd never been around that many elves before.

It's funny – if any of my readers are human, you might not live in a place with a lot of elves. When you don't know many elves, they seem to all look similar. But you spend time with them and see a lot of them, you learn to recognize individuals. I've never asked an elf, but I have some suspicion that it's similar with them. Well, I imagine there are elves reading this, too, and hopefully one of them can shed some light on the matter.

I didn't really remember anything that she told me, as I was thoroughly nervous. I guess I got some sort of crush on her. I never told her. Or anyone. Not even Pernas. Well, I might as well. He knew almost instantly.

Telepathic links have that kind of downside. As does having a dragon who makes wisecracks at every opportunity.

"Really, Justin?" He asked me, as we left our little 'briefing,' "she's like a head taller than you. You walked around with her, people would suspect she was your surrogate mother before your girlfriend."

I didn't respond. Any retort would've been subject to another crack, and I lacked the energy for it after that boat ride. In any case, it'd be a nice night of sleep before resuming the activities I'd have to do the next day.

Well, not so much a "nice night of sleep" when you're sharing a link with a sex-obsessed snake who is never ever going to get anywhere near his fantasies. So, as par for course, I had to endure Pernas coiling with his teachers.

"Pernas, can't you dream about something else?"

"Hey, you feeling left out?" Pernas asked. "Get your own harem."

"No, I don't want that…" I groaned.

"Oh my god." Pernas said, breaking away from his snuggling. "You're not gay, are you?"

"No, I'm not gay." I said, feeling annoyed. You're not supposed to be annoyed when you're asleep. I find that when I'm annoyed, I have trouble getting to sleep. Or maybe I'm annoyed because I have trouble getting to sleep. In any case, I get annoyed, and I can't sleep, and those happen at the same time, which makes it most unusual that I am annoyed and asleep at the same time.

"Yeah." Pernas said. "That wouldn't really make sense… if you were gay, you wouldn't be-"

"Don't you ever shut up?"

"No, why do you ask?"

It was at this moment that I realized I hadn't had a good night's sleep in months.

So, my job? I was supposed to stand in front of the embassy. That was pretty much it. I just stand there. As a "guard" of some kind.

Guard shmard. Guard against what? The dragons? If dragons attacked I'd probably have died.

But it turned out that, as events transpired, it was more amounted to "Hey, dragons! This is a human! If you join the Riders, you'll see lots of humans!" And so there were a bunch of dragons (young ones mainly, I gathered), standing around me, looking at me.

"So… this is a human?"

"Seems so."

"So basically, they're like elves, but uglier and smellier?"

"Correct," Pernas said. "Also, a great deal dumber. They're like monkeys"

"He your Rider?"

"Yep." Pernas said.

"How can you put up with that? I mean, well…"

"Don't they, y'know… _die_, eventually?"

"Well, I don't think so." Pernas asked. "Not with me around. Provided he doesn't slip on a staircase. Staircases are those things humans use to compensate for their lack of wings or climbing."

"Do they die of old age, like animals, or in accidents?"

"Both." Pernas said. "Often at the same time. Luckily, we have one of them taken care of, but I need to constantly baby this here human to prevent the other."

"Must be a lot of work."

"You know," I said. "I'm standing right here and can perfectly understand every word you are saying."

The young dragons did something of a double-take.

"And I'm not like a monkey."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Well, that's a rather inglorious job as a guard. I'm not here as a guard, I'm here so the young dragons can get a look at an average human.

Well, on the other hand, it's kind of flattering that they thought I was a good example for a first introduction. And it's kind of nice for people to at least _think_ I'm interesting, even if it's just because I'm the only example.

Still, it might have been nice if they'd told me up front, rather than saying I'd be a guard. And guard? Guard against what? I don't think any of the dragons in the colony would harbor any intentions of attacking, and even if some of them did, there were loads of other dragons who-

Oh, forget it. A waste of time, thought, and ink.

But this is the thing that bugs me – I don't like being talked down to. Nobody likes being talked down to, as far as I know. But everyone talked down to me – Pernas, the other dragons, the elves, my mother, Lawrence, teachers, peers. It got to me. Try as I might to overcome, it just kept whittling away at me, bit by bit.

It was at dinner about four days into the trip that it got to me. You know, I could swear that we didn't actually eat anything, if not for the fact that I don't particularly remember eating much except at meals (save for the odd orange I stuck in my pocket for guard duty), and that there was actually food there. But that's not important.

No, the important part were the conversations. Most of the time they talked about other things, but this time they started to talk about me. Pernas was speaking mostly on my behalf. By "on my behalf," I mean "interrupting me all the time and making me out to be some idiot."

"Well, I think this has proven to be a good idea." One of the elves said. "Getting young dragons to know what humans are like will help with race relations. That is what the Riders are all about, after all."

"I don't know." Said another elf. "I worry it might give a bad impression."

Tick.

"Don't be silly." Pernas said. "What can Justin do to give a bad impression? I mean, he bathes, right?" he paused, then looked at me. "You do bathe, right?"

"I think he might've missed a spot." said one dragon.

Tock.

"I think he's a fairly amiable, if unremarkable example of what humans are. Not like he's some kind of ape." Said a third elf.

"I'm not to sure about that." Said the second.

"I don't agree with either." Pernas said. "Ape, not ape. The real truth is at neither extreme, but somewhere in between."

That's it.

"Pernas, shut up." I said.

"Hey, I'm just giving my opinions on-"

"Nobody asked for your goddamn opinions!" I snapped. "I sure as hell didn't. And I didn't ask for yours, or yours, or yours." I said.

The elves and their dragons looked at me, surprised at this.

"What? Cat got your tongues? Or you unfamiliar with ape-not-ape-speak?" I said. "Huh?! Listen, let me make a few things clear – no, I'm not an ape. Yes, I do bathe every night and morning. No, I didn't write a thesis on Metaphyisical Implications. Yes, I got in mostly because of my athletic talents. No, I'm not an elf, and I'm not a dragon, but I'm a human being and I don't like being talked about as though I'm some kind of mediocre race horse!"

Dead silence.

"I'm not hungry." I said, storming off.

"You can see I'm really proud of him." Pernas said as I left.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I just lay down on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Pernas walked in.

"Hey man." Pernas said as he walked in, as though nothing had happened. "Hey, why don't you put on one of the records?"

"Why don't you do it yourself?" I asked.

"I might scratch the records, and I don't want to blemish the quality of the sound." He said. "Now put on that record."

I reluctantly got up from my bed and walked over to the phonograph. Why, oh why did Pernas insist on bringing that thing? I took the record and placed it onto the device, placing the needle at the start. I walked back to my bed as the music started, and that baritone sang,

"_Let beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,_

_Beauty awake from rest!_

_Let beauty awake for beauty's sake_

_In the hour when the birds awake in the brake_

_And the stars are bright in the west!"_

"'Let beauty awake for beauty's sake?'" I asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What's wrong with beauty?" Pernas asked.

"Nothin'." I said. "It's just, well… beauty for beauty's sake? That kinda sounds shallow."

"_Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,_

_Awake in the crimson eve!_

_In the day's dusk end_

_When the shades ascend,_

_Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend_

_To render again and receive!"_

"That's not the point, though." Pernas said. "Beauty in this is an ideal. A perfect ideal. And the thing about ideals, is, well…" he stopped. "Sometimes they're the only things worth living for." He said at length, putting his head down. I sat up a bit, looking at him oddly. That didn't sound like him.

There was a knock at the door. "Justin?" said a voice. "Loryn wants to see you."

"Oh, wonderful." I said, walking out the door to go to her office. I get mad and I get in trouble, is that how it works?

Then I get to her office and it turns out that she isn't there. Great. Why tell me to come if you aren't there? Just to take up my time.

Then I spotted something on her desk. I walked over to it.

It was a comic book. It showed a man in black armor and a face-mask, titled "The Man in the Iron Mask."

An elf who reads comics? Really? That struck me as odd.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Loryn said, entering. She spotted me holding the comic book. "You read comics?"

"No." I said, putting it down. "Never been interested."

"Oh." She said. "Please, sit down."

"Just surprised me," I said, sitting down, "wouldn't expect an elf to-"

"We aren't a bunch of snobs." She said, her temperament becoming more serious. "We don't all subscribe to stereotypes."

"Uh-huh." I said, nodding. She looked at me with that 'you're not getting it' impression.

"Your outburst at dinner today wasn't very called for." Loryn said, getting to terms she thought I could follow. "It was rude."

"They were rude to me." I said indignantly. "I might not be that extraordinary, but I don't like being talked about like that. I don't like being talked down to."

"Justin…" Loryn said. "You should be better behaved than that. You're an adult."

"Well, you're not treating me like one." I said, folding my arms.

"You're not acting like one." Loryn said coolly.

"See how easy it is for you when you're dragon is out to drive you insane and you're being referred to as a monkey."

Loryn opened her mouth, but I continued talking.

"And it's not even that you're just condescending to me, I'm just here like a zoo exhibit _________________________________" I couldn't speak. I tried, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Justin, will you please let me talk?" She asked. I glared. "You're here for an assignment, and whatever Pernas does, we can't help that. If he refuses to be disciplined, there is only so much we can do. But that does not excuse him. Nor does it excuse you."

_I simply ask to be treated with decency_. I thought loudly.

"We haven't treated you with any lack of decency." She said. She smiled, trying to be nice. "If they were mean, it was only because they were joking."

I didn't say anything.

"And the dragons in the colony, you have to understand, you're their first human. They're bound to have all kinds of conceptions. You had conceptions, too, about elves and dragons?"

_I guess_. I said.

"You can talk now," Loryn reminded me. "I think we'd both rather I didn't need to use telepathy."

"Thank you." I said, glad I could speak again.

"Now, I understand things might be awkward, but you have to understand. Many of the dragons here have never met a human. Some of the elves, even, haven't met a human. But you have to be better than shouting at the dinner table. Do you understand?"

"I guess." I said, unconvinced.

She laughed quietly. "You may go now."

I got up and went back to my room.

Pernas looked up and asked, "so how much trouble are you in?"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Maybe that outburst was uncalled for. As it was, whereas they'd earlier made jokes about me, now when I was around, there was an awkward silence, as though they were tiptoeing around any potentially offensive remarks.

Not much of an improvement, really.

Though to be fair, they were much more polite and considerate. Maybe I'm just thin-skinned compared to them. Maybe I was unaccustomed to elf humor. Granted, the dragons had also been pitching into that, but I'd never really known an elf to be humorous. Maybe it was different here, because it was mainly just elves and dragons here, with me being the only human.

Lawrence could attempt humor at times, but then again, he was half-human. Come to think of it, he really wasn't particularly funny. Not that I found the wisecracks at dinner to be amusing, if only because they were at my expense.

Pernas kept telling me that I needed to "learn to laugh at myself." Easy for him to say when he's the one doing all the laughing. At me.

It might've been nice to just get out. Be alone for a while. But I couldn't be alone. Not being a Rider. Being a Rider, there's always the dragon. Even if he's not physically next to you, there's still always that presence, there in the back of you're mind.

And if that presence is Pernas', well, that's a whole other thing. Go with him on a walk, he just wouldn't shut up.

"Sometimes, dragons just aren't as fun as humans." He said. "They don't have boats, for one thing. You don't really need boats when you can just fly over the water, or easily swim through it."

"Uh-huh." I said, not really caring. I stopped and looked behind me. "You don't suppose we're lost, do you?"

"Nah." Pernas said. "Worst comes to worst, some dragon who's out hunting will find us. Or, I could fly up into the air and look around. I'd be bound to be able to find the embassy from there."

Later, looking back on this conversation, I noticed he didn't mention me.

Then, I felt something tugging on my pant leg. "Huh?" I said, looking down. The thing was crawling up the back of my pants, then up my back, and then it stopped, sitting on top of my head.

"Hello," it said. It was a young dragon. Very young, apparently, by its size.

"Hello." Pernas said. "What's your name?"

"William."

"William?" I asked.

"Isn't that a human name?" Pernas asked.

"Yeah." William said. "My parents decided to do that. They like humans."

"Uh-huh…" I said.

"Yeah." William said. "They don't want me joining the Riders, though."

"Let's hope it stays that way." Pernas said. "Unfortunately, sometimes you don't get that choice. Like with me."

"The feeling's mutual." I said drolly.

"You hate each other?" William said, both curious and a bit disappointed.

"I hate a lot of things." Pernas said. "I have a great deal of disdain for the entire order of the Riders. But I don't hate Justin. He's so dull it's adorable."

"Another insult disguised as a compliment?" I asked.

"Who said anything about disguises?" Pernas said, winking.

"Why do you hate the Riders?" William asked.

"A number of things. First, it's co-opted my independence." Pernas said. "His, too. You can't ever really be alone. No matter what, there's always that little presence in the back of your mind, your Rider. Sometimes you don't even have your own dreams to yourself."

"Trust me, that's much more awkward my end than it is yours." I said.

"I thought that'd be fun." William said. "Being able to share dreams with people."

"Depends on what you and that other person like dreaming." I said. "Thankfully, the link becomes more controllable as time goes on, from what I understand. That way I can have my dreams to myself."

"Yes. I'll certainly appreciate my privacy." Pernas said.

"Pernas, nothing you do is private." I said.

"Never underestimate a person's secrets, Justin." Pernas said, a grin on his face.

"You ever gonna tell me those?" I asked.

"Maaaaaybe." Pernas said.

"Can I hear?" William asked.

"Nope. Sorry kiddo." Pernas said. "A secret is only worth keeping if it's with one person."

"But that isn't fun." William said. "The best secrets are the ones held by clubs, that get leaked, and then nobody knows if they're true or not. They become rumors, and then you have one side that thinks it's true, and another group of people dedicated to proving them wrong. That makes things much more fun."

Pernas laughed. "William, you're uncanny."

"Don't listen to him, William." I said. "He's a bad influence."

"What's that mean?" William asked.

"What it means is the notion of another, miniature Pernas running around makes me ill."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It occurred to me that in much of my time at the Academy, doing basic training, I never really interacted with the other dragons that much, save for some of the teachers. I mostly just stuck with the other humans. Pernas says that the dragons did more or less the same.

William seemed to be the only dragon I'd ever been involved in a conversation with aside from Pernas. Well, a conversation I wasn't obligated to take, that is. Class doesn't count.

Dragon colonies tend to be in either mountains or forests. This was a bit of both, so it suited them well. Dragons tend to be well-protected against the elements, so they can basically stay wherever. Some of the richer, more powerful dragons got large caves to stay in. We didn't get to go in, though. I wondered what it meant by being "richer," for a dragon. After all, the dragons didn't seem to have anything in the way of an economy. They had their territory, and if they needed food or water, they would just go out and take some. After all, dragons never fail at hunting. They are simply far too strong and powerful for any prey to escape or fight back.

Except for elves and humans, apparently. Well, certain elves and humans, in any case. I don't know too much about the history of race relations, to be honest. I just know that a long time ago, the three races didn't get along very well. Humans and dragons in particular hated each other.

"You can see that kind of racial tension in many stories written by humans at the times." Pernas said. "Things about dragons kidnapping princesses and stealing gold. The root of the problem is that neither side saw the other as anything other than beasts to be hunted and killed."

"So, did those things really happen?" I asked. "The kidnapping, burning down villages, treasure hoarding?"

"Yes it did." Pernas said. "Some of the older dragons, or those related to them, still have massive piles of gold and jewels, stolen from humans millennia ago. Art historians from all races are in a huge flap about it. For example, there's one dragon who was given as a gift from his parents a gold statue. Said gold statue was stolen from a palace on an island, and the amazing thing is that the statue is said to be as a mirror, appearing to the viewer as an image of himself or herself."

"How is that even possible?" I asked.

"We don't know. Magic, perhaps, or possibly through some usage of perspective. Though we don't know if it works or not. It doesn't seem to work on dragons, and the only ones who have ever seen the statue in living memory are that dragon, and his various girlfriends. Now, art historians from all races are demanding that the dragon give the statue back, as it was originally stolen. However, the person who originally owned the statue, the human who lived in the palace, is long-since dead, and has no known living heirs who would hold any claim to the statue. The island nation itself is also dissolved, so there's nobody there to claim it as a national treasure. As it stands, the statue is, technically and legally, the property of the dragon who currently owns it, and is sitting in his cave along with whatever priceless artifacts. And the only people who ever get near a dragon's hoard these days are mates, close friends, and people who are about to die. Well, that last one is more of a rarity these days, unless we go to the more uncivilized regions."

"Did humans do bad things to dragons?" I asked.

"Oh, yes." Pernas said. "Bands of humans would get together to attack dragons in their settlements. Often it was out of that same greed that drove the dragons to steal from the humans in the first place. In other places, they were regarded as a menace, and their settlements were savagely attacked. Do not underestimate the amount of damage humans did."

"But…" I said. "Aren't humans much more physically weak?"

"Oh, yes." Pernas said. "But the tools and machines you build killed a lot of dragons back then. In those days they didn't think anything of it. Neither side did. They were just a bunch of animals, either side believed, either a rich source of food and wealth, or an evil scourge to be wiped out. Seen through our current lens, it's much less, well…"

"It's like genocide." I said.

"Yes." Pernas said. "That's exactly the word I'd use. Thankfully, neither side had the means to carry that out completely, and look where we are now."

"Well, some people really want that statue…" I muttered.

Pernas laughed. "Oh, you would not believe how many problems there are in resolving these old issues. For example, back in the old days, a group of adventurers managed to sneak into a dragon's hoard and steal most of it, taking it back to their kingdom. Well, that dragon is still alive, and is demanding compensation from that kingdom for stolen goods. That alone takes up half the country's national debt."

"Huh." I said. "Well, if it's stolen property-"

"Ahh, but stealing stolen property is still stealing, under our laws. Now, one could argue that it's an ex post facto, a writ not supported in international law, but it is a matter of reparations, in which this dragon has been wronged, and deserves compensation for it. He didn't even steal it in the first place – he inherited it from his father after he was killed in a tragic accident, who had in turn gotten most of the wealth from shrewd business deals from a far more progressive part of the world that wasn't quite so ugly in race relations."

"So it wasn't universal?" I asked. "The genocide, that is?"

"No." Pernas said. "Some people had different attitudes. It was often simply a matter of one side learning the other's language, and then having one or two people on either side not kill on sight."

"Where do the elves fit into this?"

"Oh, various places. In some areas, they were just as hostile. Didn't take kindly to cutting down trees, which I find, quite frankly, starkly dogmatic."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I'm not fond of holding one's 'natural lifestyle' above others, let alone killing over it. Some elves were similarly angry at dragons."

"I wasn't aware that dragons cut down trees."

"Oh, it happens sometimes. More often, elves saw dragons as some unnatural aberration, like humans did. Awfully hypocritical, I must say, given that elves, as well as dragons, live forever. Self-appointed guardians of nature, I tell ya. But in other places, they were more reasonable, and even helped in smoothing out race relations. All three races were instrumental in forming the Riders, and in stopping us from killing each other. The conflict between humans and dragons tends to be much more dramatized, though. I'm not quite sure why."

"Ah." I said, as we walked back to the embassy.

"You know, I wish I had a huge pile of gold, myself." Pernas said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Dragonesses like that." Pernas said, smiling. "Rich dragons get tons of girlfriends."

"If it's just based on that, it seems kind of shallow."

"But of course!" Pernas exclaimed. "Shallow girls are easy and fun."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

It was our last day here. We'd be leaving soon. Pernas was extraordinarily occupied with the handling of the record player.

"I don't want it broken!" he insisted. "Or the records." He looked at me. "We should get more records when we get back."

"Are there more records?" I asked

"Sure!" Pernas said. "Musicians are bound to take advantage of the medium. I'd like to get a recording of Derek Varen."

"Who?"

Pernas looked at me, annoyed. "The famous opera singer? He's practically the leading dragon bass in the business. I got to hear him once. He has a great voice. It's very deep, but he also has a great deal of power on the high notes. Very intimidating in his villain roles."

"There are dragon opera singers?" I asked. Pernas let out a disgusted sigh.

Something landed on my head. "Hello!" an excited voice said.

_Oh no…_

"I'm coming with!" William said.

"You are?" Pernas said.

"Yeah. I want to see more humans. Maybe I could join the Riders, too."

"You'd like that?" Pernas said. "That's unusual, for a wild dragon."

"Your Justin is adorable." William said. "I want one."

"Just make sure he's stupid and you'll be fine." Pernas said. "Well, not just stupid. But if a person is stupid as well as amiable, there isn't much more you can ask for."

"I'll keep that in mind." William said, hopping off of my head and onto Pernas'. "Say, where'd you get that neat sapphire?"

"My little secret, William." Pernas said, as we walked up to the edge of the cliff, overlooking the water. I could see the ship approaching. For some reason, Pernas decided to start singing.

_"I must go down to the seas again_

_To the lonely sea and the sky_

_And all I ask is a tall ship and a start to steer her by_

_And the wheel's kick and the wind's song_

_And the white sail's shaking_

_And a gray mist on the sea's face_

_And a gray dawn breaking."_

"Say," I said. "Where _did_ you get that sapphire?"

"My little secret…" he repeated, pushing me off the edge of the cliff.

I woke up in a cabin on the ship, very sore.

"That hurt."

"Oh, stop complaining," Pernas said, in a position on the floor that indicated that he had been trying to nap. Well, serves him right.

The phonograph was playing.

"_I will make you brooches and toys for your delight,_

_Of birdsong at morning and starshine at night_

_I will make a palace fit for you and me_

_Of green days in forests, and blue days at sea."_

"How'd they get the phonograph down from the cliff? Or up to there from here?" I asked.

"Magic." Pernas responded simply.

"_I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room._

_Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom;_

_And you shall wash your linen, and keep your body white_

_In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night._

_And this shall be for music when no one else is near,_

_The fine song for singing, the fine song to hear!_

_That only I remember, that only you admire,_

_Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire."_

"It's kind of a sad song." I said.

"Mm?"

"That. It's just somewhat… melancholy."

"Yeah. The whole set is like that. Maybe we should get a few more cheerful records. Still, I like the _Songs of Travel_. They're pretty."

"Yes." I said. "They are."

"You should learn to sing or play an instrument." Pernas said. "Would be a nice worthwhile hobby."

"Yeah, I really should get back on practicing the violin-"

"You play the violin and you didn' tell me?" Pernas said excitedly, jumping up from his sleepy stupor. "When we get back, you are going to find your violin and play it!"

"Well… I started playing it a while back, before I became a Rider, but, well… I just wasn't very good at it."

"Musical instruments are like that. You shouldn't stop just because you aren't immediately good at it. It takes time, years of work, effort, and practice, practice, practice."

"How would you know?" I asked. "You don't play any instruments."

"Noooo, but I read!" Pernas said. "That's what makes me smart!"

"A dragon who reads…" I muttered.

"Hey, it's not unusual." Pernas said. "Don't be racist."

"Sorry…"

"You know…" Pernas said, turning over onto his back. "I'm looking forward to being in the city. It's fun, because there aren't a whole lot of dragons in human cities, aside from those with the Riders, so I stand out. And kids love dragons, don't they? Didn't you love dragons as a kid?"

"I guess." I said. "I don't remember much what I thought. I do remember when I was a kid, I fantasized about finding an amulet or something that would give me magical powers."

"Well, there are amulets like that." Pernas said. I just laughed, remembering how silly I was as a kid. I think everyone was silly as a kid. William was a kid, and he was certainly silly.

"You know, it's funny." I said. "As a kid, I dreamed of going on adventures."

"Well, we are with the Riders. We'll be traveling a fair bit."

"Well, that's the thing."

"Huh?" Pernas asked, looking up at me.

"Now that we're actually doing it, it just doesn't seem quite as, well… special."

"Oh, give it time." Pernas said. "We haven't even gotten into a fight or uncovered a plot for world domination yet."

"Well… I've heard it said that the world is a lot smaller than it used to be." I said. "Most of the world's been mapped out. We have transportation that can take us places fairly easily. It's like there's nothing left to explore."

"Well, think of it this way -" Pernas said, "The world might be fairly small. But there's a lot in it. Besides, there's still a lot left to discover."

"Like what?"

"Well, for one thing, you humans haven't figured out how to build flying machines yet."

"Haven't the elves already beaten us to that?"

"No, they've invented gliders. You should try one of those. I've heard a lot of humans like to go gliding as a hobby."

"No thank you." I said. "Too scared of heights."

"Oh, come on, you've already dropped off a cliff."

"Don't remind me."

"I did you a favor."

"How?"

"It's a lovely day to spend at the beach, isn't it?"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

One good thing I could say about William was that he wasn't so annoying when he was asleep. In fact, he was rather adorable when he was asleep. I laughed to myself at the trouble he'd be to the Riders. Here they were, thinking that they've broken in Pernas, when here comes his successor.

I looked over at Pernas, who was looking over the side of the boat. He was shooting fireballs at the water, seeing how much steam he could get.

No, they haven't broken him in yet, I thought. They probably never would. Pernas was just having too much fun being a smart-alecky, sex-crazed, hyperactive, self-consciously literate dragon. That he hadn't managed to pick up a girlfriend while in the colony hadn't disheartened him. He always just seemed to move onto something else that interested him, usually music, race relations, or making fun of me.

On the last day of our voyage back to the Academy, I looked over the side of the boat, at the distant shoreline of that island.

"So what now?" I asked.

"I dunno." Pernas said. "New assignment, further education, R&R?"

"Same as usual?"

"Same as usual."

"It'll be nice to see our friends again."

"We have friends?"

"Sure we do." I said. "Lawrence and Cassandra, for one."

"That's two."

I shrugged. Truth be told, the dragon colony was nice. Traveling in general was a fun, unique experience. However, it was a big hassle. Especially considering the record player we were hauling back and forth, which we were certain to be taking to future places.

The boat approached the academy, and Pernas prematurely lept off the boat and flew to the island.

"I thought you liked boats!" I shouted after him.

"Too much of a good thing." He shouted back.

I made my patient way back to our cabin, packing up our belongings. William, meanwhile, was spinning on top of the record player.

"Careful." I said. "Pernas won't be happy if that gets scratched."

"No, no." William said. "See, I'm spinning on my belly. Besides, there's nothing there."

I chuckled and switched it off.

"Awww…" he said.

"We'll have to be getting off." I said, putting the record player back in its box. "We're at the academy now."

"Cool." William said, climbing onto my back as I exited the room with by pack.

The boat arrived on the dock and I departed with William. I saw that Pernas was already engaged in conversation with Kiryst, one of our dragon teachers.

"Hello." He said. "I missed you. Did you miss me?"

"I didn't miss your transparent attempts at putting moves on me." She responded, a tone of both amusement and annoyance in her voice.

"Aww, why so cold?" Pernas asked, smiling. "Aren't I good-looking?"

"Looks don't enter the picture." Kiryst said. "The fact is that you are a boorish, rude, egotistical pervert, and neither I, nor any dragoness would want anything to do with you."

"I thought girls liked that in a guy."

"You thought wrong." She said, walking away.

"Well." I said, walking up to him. "You just got rejected. Again."

"Oh, hush up." Pernas said, swatting me with his tail ("ow" I said). "She obviously wants me."

"You say that about every dragoness, and it's never true."

"It might be true once."

"'Once,' he says." I said.

"Hey, don't you mock me." Pernas said. "You don't know _how _to decently mock somebody."

"It's not hard."

"Perhaps it's not hard to mock someone." Pernas said. "But it's one thing to simply mock someone. It's quite another to mock someone _and_ be funny."

Well, he got me there. I was happy simply to return to my room in the academy. There was the violin. Pernas would no doubt badger me to play it once he found it. I picked it up, dusting it off. I plucked one of the strings. It lacked the resonance of other, better violinists. I picked up the bow and began to play a few notes. It needed to be tuned. I didn't like tuning. It took too much time to adjust all those knobs.

"You need to tune that," Pernas said.

"I _know_." I said.

Well, I got the violin tuned, and I tried to play it. I was terrible. "You need to practice more. Much more." He said, walking out of the room.

Well, I wasn't in the mood to practice, so I followed him out. He went straight to the dock and stepped into a small boat, which rocked under his weight. He looked back at me.

"Well, you gonna get in?"

"I'm not sure." I said, seeing how it seemed to be floating a bit lower than a boat should.

"Don't be such a baby. You can swim, can't you?" he asked.

I shrugged, deciding to step in, and we floated out into the water, away from the island. I saw a seagull land on his nose. The sight was bizarre, to say the least. As I moved, it startled the bird, which flew off.

"Why did you do that?" Pernas asked, disappointed.

"What a stupid bird…" I muttered.

"Oh, birds like me." Pernas said. "I don't eat them. Except for chickens, but they're stupid and not pretty. Other birds, I like."

"I thought the only people sentimental about birds were odd old men and elfish princesses." I said.

"Oh, shut up." Pernas said. "I'm allowed my sentimental quirks"

"Elfish princesses from stories written by people who've never seen an elf in their lives…" I muttered.

"Pretty stupid stories, too." Pernas said, looking out over the water.

"It's funny – the sentimental notions we attach to the sea." He said. "But I get where it comes from. Off land, it's like we're detached from all our worries, left with nothing but the still water. Far as the eye can see, nothing on the horizon but an empty calm. Everything just leaks out of you, and you're left with a feeling of utter contentment." He took a deep breath. "I mean, it's silly. The ocean is not calm. Even if you discount, say, a violent storm, there's still all the things lurking under the water. Things that aren't quite pleasant – sharks, poisonous jellyfish, giant squid, other deadly things. Well, not so deadly to me. I mean, I am a dragon, after all." He ruffled his wings. "But still," he said, becoming more serious, "in spite of everything, I feel well." He turned to me and smiled.

Then he pushed me overboard.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

It was nice being back with familiar company. The higher-ups were certainly pleased with my performance at the embassy. They thought I made a good impression, or perhaps they were happy that I'd recruited William. Happy to have an enthusiastic new recruit.

Pernas did express some… disappointment.

"You sure you want to do that, kid? There's all kinds of rules and stuff you'll have to follow if you join."

"Oh, Pernas." Said Cassandra, napping on Pernas' back. "You just don't like rules and obligations because you're lazy."

"I am not lazy, Cassandra." Pernas said. "I just don't like doing things I don't want to do."

"That's pretty much the definition of laziness." Lawrence said.

"The point is," Pernas said, "is that the organization burdens you down with stuff."

"Oh" William said. "Oh… I guess I wasn't expecting that. Ah, well, what's the worst it could be?"

"Imagine yourself in a uniform identical to everyone else. Maybe if you're lucky, your face shows."

"But Pernas, dragons don't wear clothes." I said.

"You get the point." Pernas said, annoyed at the contradictions.

"No…" Lawrence said, shaking his head.

"Not really…" William said. "I mean, it can't be _that_ bad. You're in it."

"Hey, I didn't ask to be paired up with this idiot." Pernas said, shrugging.

"The feeling is mutual." I said dryly.

"Justin?" Someone asked. I looked around. It was someone I didn't know.

"I have a message for you." The person said, handing me an envelope. It occurred to me then that he was a messenger.

"What's in it?" William asked as I opened it.

"The director wants to talk to me." I said, reading it and then putting it back in my pocket. "I'll be back shortly."

I went down to the director's office and found it empty. Then I remembered that the director had recently changed. Director Swanson had been assigned to some other duty (Riders often tend to cycle through offices, you see), and now Derej had replaced him. And Derej wouldn't fit in the old office.

"Good afternoon, Justin" he said as I finally found his "office," which was a large chamber that was furnished with a tree, of all things.

Derej himself was a large, mahogany-colored dragon with a cheerfully professional air about him.

"Good afternoon," I said, politely, sitting down in the seat provided.

"Well, I see your little excursion to the dragon colony went well." Derej said, peering over some large papers in front of him. "That minor outburst aside."

"Yeah… I was just-"

"It's alright. Nothing to worry about." Derej said, brushing me off. "You made a positive impact, I think. You were fairly well-liked, which is what we were hoping for."

"Good to hear."

"I think that for your next assignment, we'll put you in a city area." Derej said. "New Georgetown should be a good location. It's fairly close-by, and should be familiar."

"Not really." I said. "Until I came here, I'd never been to a city, except for Belaria. Which is, well, right next door."

Derej chuckled. "I'm not much one for cities, myself. Few dragons are."

"Except for Pernas. I first saw him in the city." I said. I also thought. "Also, what about that dragon opera singer?"

"Hmm?" Derej asked, apparently having tuned out at the mention of Pernas. "I'm afraid I don't know much about opera. Wivren has been trying to get me to listen to more music, though."

"Your rider?"

"Yes." He said. "He's the sort of person who'd know about that."

"Pernas is quite a music person. He bought a record player."

"So I heard!" Derej said, chuckling. "Wivren wants one of those, too. I suppose I should see about it for his upcoming birthday. They're not that easy to find, though."

"Guess we got lucky." Pernas said. "Though we only have one record right now. Pernas wants to get more."

"Hmm. That would be a problem. I have no idea what records I should get."

"I could ask Pernas?"

Derej laughed. "Just make sure that he isn't pulling any kind of practical joke with the recommendations."

"I'll try."

"You do that. In the meantime, I'll send a letter-"

"How do you do that?" I asked.

"Pardon me?"

"Write and send letters?"

"I dictate them to my secretary." Derej said.

"I'm right here, you know." Said the secretary, annoyed.

"Oh, sorry." I said.

"Anyway," Derej said, "there's also the matter of your magical abilities…"

"I have those?"

"That's the point." Derej said. "You're education on the matter is abysmal, to put it nicely."

"That isn't really nice."

"I expect you to take more lessons. You'll find a new teacher in New Georgetown who should help you a bit. His name's Professor Dorrin. He's an elf."

"Okay." I said, nodding.

"You leave at the end of the month. That is all." He said.

"Thank you." I said, leaving.

I have absolutely no idea why I said "thank you." Must've been force of habit or something.

Pernas certainly seemed to enjoy the prospect. "Ah. New Georgetown. Never been there before. Should be fun, though. They've got a nice opera house."

"That reminds me." I said. "Derej says his rider wants a record player for his birthday. But Derej doesn't know anything about music or what records to get."

"And he trusts my opinion?" he asked, raising an eyebrow

"Not really." I said, shrugging.

"Ah. Good on him, then." He said. "That's the sort of intelligence it takes to be a Director."

I looked at him quizzically. "I can't tell if you're complimenting him or insulting him."

"And I'm not telling."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Weeks passed, and Pernas, lazy spaz that he was, continued with his usual volley of insults, practical jokes, and statements of whatever was on his mind.

I noticed that the two young dragons I knew, Cassandra and William, seemed to like him a great deal. I guess that's what the higher-ups meant when they said they were worried about him being a bad influence on the hatchlings and juveniles – they liked him.

In any case, Cassandra didn't look like she was growing up to be a female version of Pernas. I was very thankful for that. Somehow, I don't think Lawrence would've put up with those kinds of antics.

Lawrence wrote letters to his parents every day. I hadn't been able to do that. I remember once, a long time ago, a friend moved away to another town. As soon as he got there, he sent a letter, and we were supposed to keep up a correspondence. I never got around to writing back.

I imagine if I did write letters to my family, Pernas would simply burn them to spite me. I'd hate that. Waste of ink, paper, and time.

To be honest, I wasn't always comfortable around Lawrence. Just the thought that there's a telepath around you, and he can hear your thoughts without even trying. I've heard of friendships that have fallen apart because of telepathy. What happens if he catches you fantasizing about something? Or more bizarrely, what if a random, stupid thought comes into your head, and they see it? What if, for no reason, the words "gee, I sure hate sunshine and kittens" pops into your head, for no other reason other than that you seemingly wondered what it would be like if you caught yourself thinking of it? You didn't mean it at all, of course, but what if the telepath heard it? I have to keep a careful watch on my thoughts, but even if you try to tighten it something might just slip through. As though just the act of thinking "don't think something" compels you to think about that thing? And even so, if he hears "don't think about the thing," he'll know what the thing you're trying not to think about is. The only real thing that works is distracting yourself, but even that isn't always reliable. Sometimes, you just have to hope that the telepath doesn't comment on it.

One day, I asked Lawrence, "Lawrence? I wanted to ask about Pernas?"

"About his thoughts?" he asked. "Sorry."

"Well, yes."

Lawrence paused. "Quotes," he said.

"Quotes?" I asked.

"Yes." Lawrence replied. "Lots of quotes. And music. And pornography."

"That's not particularly surprising."

"Bummer." Pernas said, peering at us down from the roof.

"I knew you were going to say that," Lawrence said.

"What am I thinking of now?" Pernas asked, grinning that serpentine grin of his. I always found it odd that Pernas, a dragon larger than a horse, could have that look of mischief on him that one normally associates with an imp the size of a lapdog.

"Gross…" Lawrence said.

"Is your head ever not in the gutter?" Cassandra asked.

"Hmm," Pernas said. "Unsure. If I can fish it out, I'll get back to you."

I grumbled to myself. Pernas didn't seem to notice.

"Did Justin tell you?" he asked. "We're going to have a position as guards in a city! That'll be fun. Justin will get more experience with the urban scene."

"Which city?" Cassandra asked.

There was a pause. "I forgot." I said.

"Better look it up." Lawrence said. "Get a calendar."

"Kept getting calendars for my birthday." I said. "Barely opened them."

"They help with keeping events from slipping by." Lawrence said. "Imagine if you found you'd already missed your deadline for shipping out?"

"That would be pretty embarrassing…" I conceded.

"So get a calendar." Lawrence said.

"So, what are you doing?"

"Shipping out tomorrow. Being posted at my hometown. I'll be seeing my family and introducing Cassandra."

"It'll be good practice for when you get a girlfriend and have to introduce." Pernas said.

"Like you'd know anything about that?" Cassandra asked.

"Don't push it, kid." Pernas said through his teeth.

"Cassie, I think you touched a nerve," I said.

"Did I?"

"Oh, you just go on talking about family matters. I'll be having fun." Pernas said, taking off.

Thankfully, it turns out that I hadn't missed my deadline (though I nearly panicked out of worry before finding out the date). It was still about a week away. The week passed generally without incident, until Pernas discovered

"I have to _fly_ you all the way there?"

"Afraid so." I said. "I guess they figured we hadn't had enough practice and needed to do more."

"There's a _reason_ we don't do it more. Mainly, we don't _like_ it. Well, most importantly, _I_ don't like it."

"That seems to be the basis for a lot of things."

"Shut up."

This sort of conversation carried on well up to our departure time. I laughed, even knowing that he'd probably do something up in the air to scare me. Like throw me off or drop me or something and then catch me before I splattered on the ground.

Surprisingly, he didn't. Instead, as we took off, he said.

"Nah. I'm not going to throw you off. I've done that too many times for it to still be funny. Instead I'll just resent you for it."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

New Georgetown.

You can tell who's most likely to be populating a city by a number of factors – geography, name, architecture, elected officials, etc.

New Georgetown was an obviously human city, from the buildings to the name. It was quite different from Belaria. Whereas Belaria was very clean and tried to have a more welcoming image, New Georgetown did not seem to care what others thought of it. It was a large city, and that's all it needed, with a population that consisted almost entirely of humans.

"I don't know if I like this town…" I said when we landed.

"Stuff's too big for you, country-boy?" Pernas asked. "Ah, that's fine. I don't think the city likes you much, either."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see. Now get off." He said, throwing me off his back. I landed quite painfully.

"That was unnecessary." I said, getting up.

"So?"

"What if I broke a leg or something?"

"Then you wouldn't have to work hard." Pernas said. He then started humming something to himself and the conversation abruptly ended.

The Dragon Riders in New Georgetown didn't have a large castle like the academy next to Belaria. Instead, there was a simple collection of buildings that served as a sort of combination of embassy, barracks, training facility, and public relations.

There was a landing pad, too, but that was pretty much a given.

There were a fair number of people there – some other Riders who were new arrivals, a handful of guards (not affiliated with the Riders), and one large dragon who was wearing armor.

"Sweet bling, man." Pernas said.

"And you are…?" The dragon asked.

"I'm Pernas." He said, nodding his head. "This is my partner, Justin."

"Hi." I said. "Did you just say 'sweet bling?'"

"Part of my required attire." The dragon said. "I am Lieutenant Alderidge. I'll be your commanding officer during your stay here. I understand you were posted at a dragon colony a while back. First human to do so at that particular colony."

"They thought he was sufficiently bland enough to make a good first impression. You know, a starter human." Pernas said.

"Thank you, Pernas, that's enough." I said, not wanting him to embarrass me again.

"Your job here won't be anything particularly complicated, just some routine guard work. Patrolling the city and such."

"Sounds simple." I said.

"Don't worry," Pernas said. "We'll get to do fun stuff once we get a few more ranks."

"I'd suggest you clean up your act, Pernas, if you intend to get promoted anytime soon."

"All right, all right…"

"You'll be free to have a look around the city until 5 o'clock. Then you come back here. Good day."

"Great!" Pernas said. "We don't have to do any actual _work_ just yet!"

"We-" I started.

"Come on, Justin, we can't afford to waste any of our 'wasting time' time." Pernas said, grabbing my shirt in his teeth and carrying me off. It was awkward, to say the least. Though I imagine it might've been very funny, had it been someone else. People along the street looked at us and laughed. I imagine that Pernas' gait resembled some kind of silly prancing. Felt like a horse doing a very exaggerated trot.

"Pernas, you can let me go now."

"Uh-uh." Pernas tried to grunt through his teeth.

"You realize if you keep me like this, you can't talk."

Pernas stopped, as though thinking about it for a minute, and then dropped me.

"Great. That ruins it a little." He said.

"What's the big idea?"

"I want to explore. Also find the opera house. Derek Varen is performing in _The Scorpion_ tonight!"

"The dragon singer?"

"Yep. One of the most highly esteemed dragon performers. It's amazing how deep his voice is."

We walked down an alleyway where some people were throwing paint on a wall. Graffiti.

"Afternoon, chaps." Pernas said cheerfully. The people looked at him. They looked like young people – human teenagers, possibly early twenties. They stood there for a while, apparently scared, and then ran off.

"Hmm. Bummer." Pernas said. "It's not like I was gonna go all 'police brutality' on them. I just wanted to say 'hi.'"

I looked over at when they had painted onto the wall. In big red letters were the words "NO SUPERMEN."

"What's that mean?" I asked.

"It means you." Pernas responded. "The Riders."

"Supermen?"

"Yes. Because you are bonded to me, you are… elevated, to put it simply. You're in a higher class. You have access to my magic, and it's been making you stronger. And you won't die of old age. And why, you ask?"

I was silent. "I don't know."

"Exactly." Pernas said. "It is a completely arbitrary matter. The organization simply sensed that there was a dragon you could bond to, and they sought you out. Oh, sure, they said you were special, but all you were was an above-average athlete."

"So it's unfair?"

"Unfair? Why, the very concept undermines everything we hold dear about egalitarianism. Individuals, through no merits of their own, taken to a higher pedestal than the usual plebian."

"Huh."

"Good response." Pernas said, looking very pleased with himself. "Hmm" he said as we walked back onto the street. "You know what we need? A map. That way we can find the theatre sooner."

"What if they don't have dragon-sized seats there?"

"Oh, they won't." Pernas said. "I want to get there early so I can complain to the manager."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Our attempts to use a map in order to guide us through the town were unsuccessful. After about a half-hour of being unable to find anything we were looking for, we decided to just throw it away and wander aimlessly, hoping to find something of interest.

There was one thing that caught Pernas' eye. A glass shop, of all things, bearing a simple sign designating the establishment as "The Glass Emporium."

"I've always been fond of glass. It's very pretty. Especially glass made from the sand of the Rainbow Beach."

"The Rainbow Beach?" I asked, finding the name rather silly.

"Yes!" Pernas explained. "Most glass-blowers need to mix things in with the sand in order to give it a distinctive color. But for some reason, possibly magic, the sand on the rainbow beach, when turned to glass, makes these brilliant colors. The sands can even be mixed, like paint or light."

"Light?" I asked.

"Yes." Pernas said. "Don't you know anything about color?"

"I-"

"Light is made up of many colors. Every color that we can see, and some we can't, is there in light, coming from the sun. If you were to hold a specially cut piece of glass so that a ray of sunlight hit it, it would split into all the colors of the rainbow."

"Umm…"

"Now, go inside and buy something." Pernas said, shoving me through the door.

"Why don't you-?"

"No, you." Pernas said, leaving my sight as I was left to just stand there in the doorway. A short, bespectacled, funny-looking man looked up at me from behind a counter.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"Yes, but I'm not sure how." I said, looking around the store. There were numerous different sculptures, all of different shapes, sizes and colors, but mostly either animals or tableware. I walked past the shelves, eyeing the various pieces of glassware. An ornate wine glass here, a pair of glass birds that seemed to reflect different colors when you held them up to the light (guess Pernas was right about that).

There were a few that caught my eye. One of them was a small, deep blue sculpture of a dragon. I thought it was kinda funny, looked a little like Pernas. Then I noticed something on the sculpture's forehead, like a little lump. I leaned down to take a closer look. It looked like a cut gem. Just like the sapphire in Pernas' forehead.

I stared at that sculpture for a while, perplexed, when I heard something tapping on the glass. I turned around and saw Pernas.

"Hurry up and buy something!" He said impatiently. "We haven't got all day!"

Without looking I grabbed something else off the shelf. It wasn't the blue dragon, but instead it was a bottle-green hummingbird. Hoping that I had enough money in my pockets, I headed towards the counter.

"Excuse me, sir?" I asked the man at the counter as I counted out my coins.

"No discounts." He said, as though he thought that was what I was going to ask.

"No, not that." I said, relieved I had enough money (even if it was most of the rest of my money. I wondered how Pernas would feel if we couldn't afford tickets.), "It's just… I'd like you to hold onto one of the items here? I might like to buy it at a later date."

"Hmm?" The shopkeeper asked.

"The little blue dragon sculpture." I said.

"Sure. Name?"

"My name's Justin." I said. "I'm with the Riders."

"You got a family name?" he asked.

"Look, I have a big blue dragon who likes opera and glass, does it need to be more specific?"

The shopkeeper shrugged. "I'll hold it. But don't complain if another Justin with a blue dragon comes along."

I walked outside with by little glass hummingbird, carrying it carefully. There was one thing I did know about glass sculptures – they broke easily.

"I did some flying around, and I found the theatre!" Pernas said.

"I bought this –"

"Wonderful, let's hurry up and get there quickly!" Pernas said, ignoring the hummingbird. It occurred to me that he probably just stuck me in that shop so I wouldn't wander off someplace while he went flying.

Seeing the outside of that theatre was a bit of a disappointment. It certainly didn't _look_ very theatrical.

That's as close as I could get to a first impression before Pernas dragged me off again.

"Hey, what gives?" I asked. "We just got here!"

"I know." He replied. "Now we can get back quickly when we have time. We have to be back with the rest of the riders in time. That way we can come back later and see the performance, hopefully tonight."

"That assumes they let us off to see it."

"Never underestimate the power of good behavior."

"You're _never_ well-behaved."

"It's never too late to reform."

"Debatable."

"You're such a cynic." Pernas said, as we walked back to the embassy.

"What are we doing here, again?" I asked. "What's our job?"

"We don't know, yet." Pernas answered, appearing not to care. "I presume something along the lines of guardwork. Like patrolling the municipality."

"Well, at least I don't have people calling me a monkey."

"Enjoy it while you can"

Alderidge met us as we returned. "I see you've arrived on time," he said. "I was expecting Pernas to keep you absent."

"That was the old Pernas." Pernas said eagerly.

"As opposed to…" Alderidge said, seeing that Pernas wanted something.

"The… Pernas-who-wants-to-go-to-the-opera tonight?" Pernas asked.

"You became very spineless very quickly, you know that?" I said.

"Shut up, it's completely worth it" Pernas hissed through his teeth.

"The opera?"

"Yeah. Derek Varen in _The Scorpion_."

"Well, I didn't have anything planned for you until tomorrow…" Alderidge said, mulling it over. "Very well. But I expect you to be _exactly on time_ tomorrow. Can you manage that?"

"Yes." Pernas said.

"Very well," Alderidge said. "You're relieved for the rest of the evening, but you are to be here for briefing at seven tomorrow morning."

And with that, he went off to attend to some other business.

"Don't you worry, dearest Justin." Pernas said. "I have a magnificent gag planned to overly compensate for my current pliability."

"Oh, joy…" I said, sarcastically. "So, what is this… thing about, basically?"

"It's about a scorpion," Pernas began. "That falls in love with a butterfly. It's a very beautiful butterfly, but she's always flying around among the flowers, while he scurries along on the ground. He never has a chance at her, but still he pines."

"So what happens?" I asked.

"The scorpion tries to speak with her, but she's frightened and flies off, and gets eaten by a bird." Pernas said. "The scorpion becomes depressed, and the bird then offers the chance to join her, if he'll let him eat him."

"Sounds depressing."

"I'm not finished" Pernas said, apparently annoyed. "The Scorpion almost accepts. But then he stings the bird, killing him. Then he wanders off to his hole to live a lonely existence."

"That…" I said. "Sounds _really_ depressing."

"I'll take you to a _buffa_ sometime later." Pernas said. "Those are always fun. Though I'm not fond of the trend of the bass always being an old fat fart who never gets the girl. But still, I can't fault farce!"

And he slapped me in the back of the head with his tail.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Sure enough, there were no dragon-sized seats in the opera house, so we had to stand in the back, where there were no seats at all. This was fine by Pernas, who could just sit on the floor, but it left me with the awkward predicament of needing to get a separate, movable chair.

Opera seems to be a medium in which characters talk more to themselves than they do to each other.

The dragon that Pernas had been keen on seeing was a massive black dragon with a large moustache. I didn't even know dragon had facial hair, let alone that – I swear, it was a moustache so long you could tie several knots with it.

The dragon sang the part of the scorpion, and he had a really low voice. The bird was sung by a human, and he had a very high voice. The butterfly was sung by an elf who had a high voice. There was also some guy playing a badger (had a really low voice) who was apparently supposed to be funny.

I dunno, I didn't get it. I didn't get why Pernas thought it'd be worth getting up early the next morning to do whatever Alderidge wanted us to do. The music was good, I guess, but I'd be happy to leave as soon as it was over. Pernas, however, wasn't too keen on leaving.

No, he wanted to talk to the actors. My immediate question was, "are we allowed to do that?"

"Why not? We're with the Riders!"

"I don't think they'll care." I muttered.

Nonetheless, Pernas rushed us to the lobby where he was easily able to get through the crowd.

"Mister Varen!" Pernas shouted, trying to get the black dragon's attention.

"Oh, hello…" the dragon said. Apparently Pernas was being a bit more enthusiastic than most other people.

I imagine he found it somewhat annoying. He probably just continued talking because he didn't see many opera-going dragons.

"I'm a big fan of yours." Pernas said. "And this is my Rider, Justin."

"Hi…"

"Ohh, with the Riders, eh?" the singer said. "That's funny. I almost joined, once-"

"Derek…" another man said. I recognized him as the tenor who sang the part of the bird.

"Oh, what's the worst they can do, Peter?" The dragon asked. "They can't force us to join."

"They can't?" I asked.

"We have a very good lawyer and several routes out of Rider jurisdiction." Derek said. "This is Peter Perin. You could call him my Rider, if we were with the organization."

"Hi." Peter said, apparently a little annoyed. "We, well, bonded, a very long time ago."

"Ahh, _that's_ why you're still singing after all these years." Pernas said. "Makes sense."

"I'd think the extended lifespan would be difficult to cover up." I said.

"Well, by the time it becomes too noticeable, the organization shouldn't have much cause to get us in," the dragon said. "Something like a statute of limitations, my lawyer tells me."

"A statue of limitations is only when they find a crime has been committed and has been formally documented."

"Well, I said _like_ a statue of limitations." Derek said. "Besides, they want young people. Not old farts that have big formal careers. We could've simply joined and retired, but I'm not really one for physical exertion."

"Sounds familiar…" I muttered.

"Well, anyway, I love your performance." Pernas said. "There wouldn't happen to be any recordings of you singing the part, would there?"

"You mean for that record player thing? Not really. My agent thought it'd be a good idea for me to sing a few songs to put on one of those things, but the idea of doing the entire opera never occurred."

"Well, you should." Pernas said. "I remember seeing you the last time you performed, it was great…" They carried on their conversation, while Peter addressed me.

"Your dragon friend seems very enthusiastic." He said.

"Quite." I said. "Often at my expense. Doesn't usually fawn like this."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It's annoying." I said. Then I thought. "Actually, everything he does is annoying."

"I know the type, believe me. I worked with this one horrendous diva of a soprano once…"

"She dangle you over a cliff?"

"No, but I'd liked to have dangled her over one."

"Ahh…" I said. "That bad?"

"One time she demanded to sing the mezzo's aria. Like she doesn't know how theatre works. You can't just take lines from one character and give it to another one. Besides, she sounded awful on that aria. That song's sung by mezzo-sopranos for a _reason_."

I wish I knew what he was talking about.

"Well, Pernas here gives no end to my troubles. He treats me like I'm an idiot-"

"You _are_ an idiot, Justin" Pernas said quickly, "well, we should be heading back. It's been wonderful to see that, and we'll buy all your records."

"We will?" I asked.

"We _will_."

And with that, we exited the theatre.

"Wasn't that fun?" Pernas asked.

"Not really."

"Oh, you're just a philistine."

"I don't know what that means," I said, "but now, I didn't enjoy myself, and I have to wake up early tomorrow, and then you're going to get us in trouble again."

"Oh, come on." Pernas said, nudging me. "You must have gotten _something_ of value from the experience."

"Like what?"

"Dragons bonded with humans and elves and not part of the Riders!" Pernas exclaimed. "Imagine – how many people would accept bonding, if not for the fact that it's tantamount to being conscripted into a military organization. People could have all the benefits of a link, without any of the burdens!"

I stopped. "You dragged me out here, just for that?"

"I thought you might appreciate some good music."

"You could've just bought a record."

"No, _you_ could've just bought a record."

I grumbled.

"Look, just think – we could have every single human and elf paired up with a dragon, if we could just get rid of those things that get in the way – the constant police organization, the arbitrary selection – we could pave the way for a new world, it could even solve all the racial problems."

"I doubt it." I said. "Looks to me like you'd need to solve all the racial problems in order to get the 'everyone is a rider' thing to work. Also, how do we guarantee that everyone has a bond? Or that everyone even wants a bond? You _never_ wanted one, yourself."

"I…" Pernas said, trying to think of something, but it seemed like he was racking his brains. It was as though I had pierced something in his idea, and the expression on his face was, well, something kind of pitiable. "So, how early are we supposed to be up tomorrow?"

I had checked the schedule. "We're due at seven, so we should be up at six. Not that early, actually."

The expression on Pernas' face indicated that it _was_ early for him. "Should've gone to a _buffa_," he muttered.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Pernas was bright and chipper in the morning when he had to get up and be assigned to our duty. We were paired off with another dragon and human rider. The dragon's name was Vesper, I think. He was an olive-green dragon with what I swear is the driest personality I've ever come across. I think he and Pernas might've gotten along if it wasn't for the Rider, a young man older than myself (though not by much) named Richard Buckstrap (I swear I am not making that up. Perhaps he did in attempt to make himself tougher). He was about my height, but he had a goatee. Pernas took a near instant disliking to him. I think I did, too, but it took me longer to realize.

Pernas was in the process of yammering about that opera we say last night. "Derek Varen is a wonderful singer – I swear, I think I'd go gay for that voice."

"You already are." Richard said. "Going to see musicals-?"

"_Opera_" Pernas specified.

"Whatever." Richard said.

"Just because _I_ appreciate actual culture-" Pernas said.

On second thought, I think that at first, my sympathies might have been with Richard.

"Nobody cares."

And then, Pernas lifted his front right… paw? Hand? Set of claws? Could never figure that out, and then, I swear that he extended the middle claw and gave Richard the bird.

I remember Vesper's blank, unflappable expression, as he fiddled with his claws, seeing if he could do it.

This went on over the course of a few days. Pernas and Richard bickered about things – not like how Pernas would torment me for amusement, but I think Richard actually offended Pernas on some level. It's not like Richard was a pleasant person – as much as I tried to stay out of their spats, he'd sometimes come and belittle me. I'm practically married to a stubborn dragon, and if that doesn't get to you, it's hard to say what will, but he just wasn't a very nice person.

Over the course of the next week, we went out patrolling. At one point, while Richard and I were alone, a ragged crazy walked up to us.

"Ye best be wary, ye two."

"Oh, great." Richard mumbled.

"I see the serpents whispering in your ears."

"Anti-dragon crazy?'

"Smelly crazy, at least." Richard said. "Shove off!"

The crazy eyed him suspiciously, and then backed up. "Can't trust 'em. Never trust a serpent."

In any case, I had noticed that we were outside the glass shop that I had stopped at a few days before. I decided to walk in there, telling Richard to wait. He made a disparaging remark that I didn't pay attention to and thus don't remember.

The funny little shopkeeper saw me enter. "You here again? You wanted to buy that blue dragon?"

"Not right now, still no money. I just wanted to look at it." I said, walking over to its shelf.

"By all means. But if you break it, you buy it."

"I'll… be careful." I said. I carefully lifted the little sculpture and turned it over. On the dragon's belly I saw the initials _'P.V.'_ I'd seen those initials before, on the hummingbird.

I turned to the shopkeeper. "What does this mean? 'P.V.?'"

"Eh?" the shopkeeper asked.

"It's right here on the sculpture."

"Probably just the initials of the glass blower or the name of the seller. A lot of them like to initial their work."

"What does it stand for, though? What's the name?"

"Look, young man, I am a salesman, not a academic." He said. "I've had that thing since I opened shop. The sculptor's probably long dead, and even so there's no records of who it is."

"What if he isn't dead?" I asked. "If it was an elf or a dragon-"

"They'd probably still be making them." The owner said, starting to get annoyed.

As I had no more questions, I quickly left. Well, no more questions that the shopkeeper could answer, but I was still confused. My first idea, as soon as I had seen that sculpture, was that it had been the image of Pernas. And the initials – "PV." "Pernas" starts with a "P." But what of the V?

I walked out and saw that Richard had been joined by Vesper. Then I realized that "Vesper" began with a "V," and that this whole thing was probably very stupid.

Not like Pernas was the only blue dragon in the world. I gave up on that. I think I felt like I was trying to find some sort of intrigue in the world where it didn't exist – being with the Riders was not as fantastical as I'd imagined, and it turned out that all the people, human, elf, or even dragon, were as mundane as anybody back home.

"You know," I said, when I had met up with Pernas again, "why are you dragons always compared to serpents? I mean, serpents don't have legs…"

"Because snakes are cooler than lizards." Pernas said, simply. "Also, there are some legless lizards."

"Really?"

"Yes." He said. "One distinction is that lizards can blink."

"Can you blink?"

"Yes." Pernas said. Then, catching onto the implications, he thought about it.

"Like I said, more like lizards than snakes."

"Doesn't really matter." Pernas said. "We're not reptiles, anyway. I mean, we're warm-blooded. Very hot-blooded, actually. Fire and all." He blew some smoke to demonstrate.

I wondered. "Are there any disadvantages?" I asked. "Of being a dragon, as opposed to a human?"

"Oh, lots." Pernas said. "Can't play the violin."

"N, I mean like-"

"Hey, it's a pretty serious handicap." Pernas said. "Until someone invents a dragon-specific musical instrument, I'm missing out on something."

"Nobody's invented a dragon-specific instrument?"

"No!" Pernas said. "It's a shame. Except for those over-sized harps that sound more like a double bass on pizzicato than a harp."

"Huh?"

"Things don't scale up." Pernas said. "Bigger instrument and bigger strings means a deeper sound."

I tuned out around this point, because, like my conversation with Peter Perin the previous night, I neither knew about nor cared about what he was talking about. Come to think of it, I found myself wishing for Richard to tell him to shut up. That might've been funny.

But I soon found that Richard Buckstrap was not someone I wanted to be around. But that's in hindsight. At that point, I had realized that there was something wet in my pocket. I inspected it.

"What the…"

"Oh!" Pernas said. "I'd forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding me!"

"Wha-"

And Pernas spit out some sparks and set my pocket on fire. It was something flammable.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

I was not in a good mood the next day, reason being-

"You put your saliva in my pocket and set my pants on fire!"

"I always set your pants on fire!"

"Not in a crowd you don't!" I said. "And usually around water. And those were _good pants_!"

"It's perfectly reasonable to do it in a crowd!" He protested. "That makes it easier for them to put it out. So what if Alderidge puts us on probation-"

"Nnnooo, he put _you_ on probation. I didn't do anything wrong."

"Well, that's hardly fun." Pernas groaned. "Besides, it's your own fault. You didn't notice there was anything wet in your pocket."

"I shouldn't _have_ to notice if there's anything wet in my pocket." I said, exasperated. "It's little girls who have to worry about that when boys stick tadpoles into their pockets."

"Wish I could do that." Pernas said. "Claws get in the way…"

"Oh, shut up." I said, giving up.

"I _will_." He said, looking over at the record player. "Uhh, could you turn it on?"

"You turn it on!"

"I'll scratch the records!"

"I don't care."

"How can't you care? It's good music, and it cost you money."

"Ughhh…" I said, putting the next record on.

I must admit, the music on that record made me feel very good. First part of it was a very soothing, simple bit. Then that baritone voice came in again, singing:

_To the heart of youth the world is a highwayside._

_Passing for ever, he fares; and on either hand,_

_Deep in the gardens golden pavilions hide,_

_Nestle in orchard bloom, and far on the level land_

_Call him with lighted lamp in the eventide._

_Thick as the stars at night when the moon is down,_

_Pleasures assail him. He to his nobler fate_

_Fares; and but waves a hand as he passes on,_

_Cries but a wayside word to her at the garden gate,_

_Sings but a boyish stave and his face is gone._

_Is gone…_

That song was different from the three that had preceded it. Something about it touched me in a way that I didn't think music possibly could.

It's funny how I remember these songs so well, despite not having listened to those records in years. I still remember them now. I do not think I will ever forget those songs as long as I live.

In any case, the music had diffused my tension with Pernas (perhaps he intended that?) and we were off.

After breakfast, we were assigned (by a very annoyed human) to patrol duty again, paired up again with Richard Buckstrap and Vesper.

I still hadn't shown Pernas the glass hummingbird yet. He didn't leave me much time to talk about things I wanted to talk about.

Richard was toying with a knife, which made me very uneasy.

"What's the matter?" He asked. "Scared you'll get cut?"

"I think it's more that he doesn't like you and doesn't trust you with a pointed stick." Pernas said, in a rare occurrence of coming to my aid. "Or maybe he's worried that you're so stupid you'll cut yourself."

"I didn't ask you anything." Richard said, irritated.

I looked at Vesper. Disinterested, as usual. Then I saw the bum from earlier.

"Oh, no." I said.

"What?" Pernas and Richard asked at the same time, and then they glared at each other.

"It's that guy from yesterday." I said. The other three then looked at the bum.

The guy was carrying himself differently, a bit more upright, hands behind his back. "Good morning, serpents and serpent-talkers."

"Do I know you…?" Pernas asked.

"Not really." The bum said, and then we saw why the bum had his hands behind his back – he brandished a large knife and ran at Pernas. It happened so fast that none of use were able to react to it – except Richard.

He quickly intercepted the bum and stabbed him through the heart with his own (Richard's, that is, not the bum's) knife.

There was a moment of silence as the bum fell to the ground and died.

"Oh my god…" I said, rushing to the body. Vesper said nothing. Richard simply starting cleaning his knife.

Pernas was silent. I looked at him, and I saw… he was shaking.

Then he exploded in fury and grabbed Richard around his throat and lifted him into the air.

"YOU KILLED HIM!" He roared. "HE WASN'T EVEN AFTER YOU AND YOU KILLED HIM!"

Richard didn't say anything. The "tough guy" act had completely crumbled.

"I CAN DEAL WITH A GUY WITH A KNIFE YOU… You…" his voice trailed off. He shook and dropped Richard, who fell on the ground without sympathy.

"I gotta get out…" Pernas whispered, and with that, he spread his wings and abruptly took to the sky, flying away from the city.

That left a crowd to gather around us, shocked at the sudden violence, or perhaps simply because it showed us Riders in less than our best light. They formed a circle around us, staring.

"Well…" Vesper said. "This will be complicated."

More dragons and riders came, among them Lieutenant Alderidge.

"What happened?" he asked.

"W-well, he-" I gestured to the bum, stammering a little. "Charged at Pernas with a knife, and then he-" I gestured to Richard, who had dusted himself off and was resuming his usual air, "killed him-" I gestured to the corpse.

"Where is Pernas now?" Alderidge asked, looking around.

"He flew away." Vesper said.

"Flew away? Where?" Alderidge asked me.

"I don't know…" I said.

"We'll have to find him." Alderidge said. "This is a serious matter, and him flying off like that makes it worse."

"Should we organize a search party?" Another one of the riders (a young human) asked.

"No." I said. "I think I should find him myself."

"Very well," Alderidge said. "We'll give you a horse immediately. We'll give you until tomorrow to find him, and then we'll send a party to look-"

"But how-"

"You two are linked. Use that link to find him. He might even be calling out to you."

I was hurried along to a stable and given a horse. I hadn't ridden a horse in nearly a year, but I got my bearings quickly enough, and I left the city to find my dragon.

After several hours of heading vaguely in the direction he had headed in, I felt a sort of pull, somewhere in my mind.

_Pernas?_

No response. I felt very silly, trying to be all telepathic like that, but I felt something like a pull, as though there was some kind of pulsating thread connecting the two of us. It seemed to come from the forest, and so, having no better leads, I followed it, into the woods. It took me a few hours trying to find my way (paths on which one could take a horse were annoyingly sparse), and the sun was low in the sky, but I eventually made my way to a clearing that had a single large tree.

And there was Pernas, curled up at the base of it. Is dismounted from my horse, which took off, scared at the sight of the dragon.

I walked up slowly to him. "Pernas?" I asked quietly.

"What?" Pernas asked weakly.

"Are you okay?"

"No." He said stiffly. "I can't take that kind of thing…"

'That kind of-"

"People dying!" He said emphatically. Then he backed off again, "People getting killed like that…"

This surprised me. With the way Pernas acted, with the way I'd known him to gleefully rip apart cows, this attitude was perhaps the last thing I'd expected from him.

"I could've stopped him, but I just sat there like an idiot, and let the other idiot…" he gulped. "I could have prevented that. Stopped him without hurting him. It would've been nothing. It might even have been funny…"

I sat down. "It's okay. Richard will probably get in trouble for it-"

"That doesn't matter." Pernas said, getting up. "Justin, I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

He walked up to me. "Justin, I'm a pacifist. I want you to promise, to swear that you'll never kill anyone. Ever."

"Pernas, I-"

"SWEAR IT!" he roared, lurching towards me with a fanatic gleam in his eyes. Then, he seemed to realize what he'd done, and recoiled, as though horrified with his own action. "Please…" he said, almost whimpering.

"I promise." I said, not thinking much of it, half-scared and half mystified. "I won't kill anyone."

He curled back up at the base of the tree. "I've killed people before, Justin. A long time ago. I don't want to do it again. Never, again. I feel as though part of my soul died, like I'd committed some evil I can never be free of." He looked up at the sky and got up. He threw himself at the tree, digging his claws into the bark. "Oh, God, forgive me…" he said, his eyes clenched shut, "please, forgive me…"

And I heard him whimper, and I saw that Pernas was crying. I don't think I'd ever seen him, or any dragon, cry before.

I walked up to him and put him hand on him. "Will you be okay?" I asked.

There was a long pause, as he took several deep breaths and tried to clear his throat. "Yes, I think so…"

"We'll have to go back. They gave me until tomorrow to find you and return."

Pernas sighed. "Get on my back."

"Really?"

"Yes." He said. I cautiously climbed onto his back, wondering to myself if he'd ever actually been fitted for a saddle, but I was rustled from my thoughts by his suddenly taking off. Unfortunately…

"Pernas, you're going the wrong way!"

"I'll go there later!" He called back. He flew us up towards a nearby mountain, and we landed on a ledge. He unceremoniously dropped me onto the ground, and sat down at the edge, watching the setting sun.

"Pernas…" I said. "We have to get back."

"Not yet, please." He said. "I want to stay out here just a while longer. I want to watch the stars come out."

I looked out at the setting sun, and I stopped my protestations as I felt the cool breeze from below. I sat down next to him and admired the view. And Pernas just sat there, his head lowered, doing the same, as the stars began to come out, one by one.

"Richard's an ass." I said at length.

"Yes." Pernas said quietly. "He is."


End file.
